How do you find stuff on your phone?

Reader Poll With our phones being used to store and access more and more things, finding the stuff we want quickly can become a challenge. And we're not just talking about expensive high end devices such as iPhones here. It is almost impossible now to buy a device that doesn't have some kind of internet access and media capability. Contacts, calendar entries, games, music, video, applications, bookmarks to online services, etc can therefore accumulate pretty rapidly, even on phones that many would consider to be 'basic' or 'entry-level'.

With this in mind, it is interesting to consider whether the traditional hierarchical menu driven approach, arguably perfected by Nokia back in the 90s, should remain the pivot for device navigation. Even if it is front-ended by a screen full of sexy looking icons, there is still a need for mechanisms that allow you to get straight to the information, content or function you want with the minimum of fuss from a standing start, without having to worry about the route you take.

But what’s the state of play today? And what are your thoughts on how access mechanisms should work in the future to avoid overload and your device becoming a black hole?

Tell us what you think in our latest reader poll below.

READER POLL